


The good, the bad and the wonderful

by junebugtwin



Category: Teen Titans (Animated Series)
Genre: Angst, Character Study, Friendship, Gen, Male-Female Friendship, i'd be depressed too, if i knew both me and the world were going to be destroyed, kinda sad, pre-ravens birthday, ravens a little depressed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-24
Updated: 2020-07-24
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:07:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25481401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/junebugtwin/pseuds/junebugtwin
Summary: Garfield’s staring at her now, the expression on his face unreadable. And for one awful minute she thinks he figured it out- that he’ll guess it all and his life will be reduced to the ticking hands of a clock. That death will haunt his every thought until every good moment is spoiled, a waiting anxiety, a guillotine hanging over his head.And for one minute she thinks he figured it out, and she’s not alone.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	The good, the bad and the wonderful

**Author's Note:**

> Y'know, there are plenty of awesome Raven fics, so maybe I'm just not looking in the right places, but I find very few of them that actually go into depth about the whole 'hey when my birthday hits not only do I have a helping hand in destroying all of humanity, but I'm also supposed to turn into a portal??? and then??? like??? die????' thing. Like this girl basically has a terminal illness in which she knows exactly the date of her death! That is the Most Depressing Shit ever. So y'know, I thought I'd write just a little fic about it. Anyway sorry for the rambling, remember to comment if you enjoyed! :)

Its dark enough that it’s hard to see anything except for stars and the cities lights from outside the window. They’ve turned all the lights off, and the glow of the t.v casts almost eerie shadows around the room, the colors on her sleeping friends faces changing with the scenes of the movie.

Ravens holding a mug full of blueberry tea between her hands and periodically sips at the drink over the course of the evening- it’s good, but mostly for warmth. At this point it’s only her and Garfield that are still awake- Kori’s collapsed into Victor’s arms who in turn is leaning on Robin heavily. She’s honestly not sure how the boy wonder was able to fall asleep with the combined weight of a musclebound Tamaranean and a half metal man twice his size, but he seems perfectly unbothered.

Vic’s eyes are closed gently, but a few of the lights on the robotic side of his body flash in the darkness occasionally. Raven finds the sight quite soothing- proof that her friend is alive and well.

Robin’s softly snoring and Kori is making some sort of low purring sound in the back of her throat.

Garfield’s got his legs propped up on Ravens lap in a blatant show of disrespect for her personal space. It’s as annoying as it is endearing- when they first got together he wouldn’t have been caught dead lounging so close to her, and she would never have considered letting him. And now he was just as touchy with her as he was with Dick- that is to say, less than with Kori and Vic but much more than either of them were originally comfortable with.

The movie is some sort of vampire movie, and Raven hasn’t really been watching it per say. Modern movies tend to fly completely over her head- she doesn’t get the references made in them, pop-culture or otherwise. And the comedy in most of these types of movies tend to leave her unaffected or puzzled more than anything- unsurprisingly Azarathian monks have a very different view on humor. She doesn’t quite get Kori’s enthusiasm with earth-media, considering she must feel even more lost, but she’s not about to ask and out herself as a ‘un-human’ being.

Gar’s watching it with his usual vigor, eyes glued to the screen with rapt attention- he’s quite good at this sort of thing, always absorbed interesting details about the story that the rest of them missed completely.

He also likes to pause the movie every once and awhile to ask Raven her opinion on certain plot elements, or to simply point out a visual or character he particularly liked.

As if reading her thoughts the smaller boy reaches for the remote and clicks the movie into a pause, turning to her with a thoughtful expression on his face.

“I don’t think I’d want to be like that.” He states- somewhat unhelpfully, considering Raven hadn’t been paying attention. She cocks her head slightly.

“What do you mean?” She asks neutrally, unworried about waking any of her friend’s up- she cast a quieting spell over her and Garfield the moment they started chatting.

“Like, y’know, I wouldn’t want to live forever like Nightwhisper.” He explains, and Raven does a slight double take- _that_ was the main characters name?? Hmm.

When she actually processes the rest of what he said all simple responses she’d worked up fly out of her head. This is really not a subject she’s an expert on. She doesn’t even know what it would be like to have a life expectancy of twenty, never mind infinity. She plays with her fingers, running the pad of her thumb over the blunt tips of her nails.

“I would.” She says, unable to help herself. It’s the truth- she’s not sure she could lie about something like this. Gar raises his eyebrows and squints at her slightly.

“Why though? Don’t you think life would lose meaning without, like, death?” He asks, staring at her like her answer will be the most interesting thing in the world. Raven shifts a little.

“I think…I think that that’s what people tell themselves, because we can’t do anything else. We can’t stop death, we can’t stop it from taking people away from us, or eventually making us-“ She pauses, catching her breath, and calming herself down.

“-I think humanity finds meaning in lots of things. I don’t think poetry or music or joy would suddenly stop if we could live forever, I think we’d keep making and dreaming until the sun explodes.” She finishes her voice almost a whisper by the end. But humanity won’t see the sun explode, humanity won’t live forever. The good, the bad, and the wonderful will all disappear in a year from now. And it’s her fault.

Maybe she’s wrong. Maybe living life forever would become tedious and boring, maybe it would be more like a prison than anything else. But it’s hard to think that way. It’s like asking a starving man if he thinks humans eat too much food.

Garfield’s staring at her now, the expression on his face unreadable. And for one awful minute she thinks he figured it out- that he’ll guess it all and his life will be reduced to the ticking hands of a clock. That death will haunt his every thought until every good moment is spoiled, a waiting anxiety, a guillotine hanging over his head.

And for one minute she thinks he figured it out, and she’s not alone.

And then he tips his head back, humming thoughtfully as he stares at the ceiling tile, green eyes tracing the patched up hole that Kori punched in when they were fighting over pizza two days ago.

“Yeah, I can see that.” He responds, and then presses play on the remote.


End file.
